Rocky Long impressed with progress as San Diego State wraps up spring football practice

Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune

SDSU Aztecs hold their first team spring practice at the former Chargers Park and begin their team warmup on a field once considered off limits for photography.

SDSU Aztecs hold their first team spring practice at the former Chargers Park and begin their team warmup on a field once considered off limits for photography. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

The official start of spring is still a week away, but spring practice has now come and gone for the San Diego State football team.

The Aztecs wrapped things up Tuesday afternoon at the former Chargers Park.

Progress was made, SDSU head coach Rocky Long said.

“We got a lot accomplished,” Long said. “We developed some depth in some places. We developed some confidence in some guys that have to play this year that didn’t have to play much last year.”

Two of the biggest areas of concern for the Aztecs are fullback, a spot vacated by senior standout Nick Bawden, and the secondary, where two starting spots are open.

Five of the eight players Long singled out as having a good spring were either at fullback — Isaac Lessard — or in the secondary — safety Trenton Thompson and cornerbacks Kyree Woods, Tayler Hawkins and Darren Hall.

“Isaac Lessard would start at fullback if we were going to play today,” said Long, cautioning, “You never know if that’s going to stay that way in the fall.”

Long said the others earned substantial playing time, if not a starting position, when the team reconvenes in August.

A year ago, the focus was on the offensive line, which was auditioning four new members.

It was a different story this year with starters Tyler Roemer, Daishawn Dixon, Dominic Gudino, Keith Ismael and Ryan Pope all returning.

“That’s sort of a veteran group now, so you don’t worry about them,” Long said.

Not unless, that is, you’re offensive line coach Mike Schmidt.

“Now it’s getting them to do it exactly the way you want to and have them explain it back to you and showing you they have a full understanding of what we’re trying to get done,” Schmidt said. “Instead of saying, ‘I got this guy’ and trying to sustain that block, it’s a lot more detailed to the coaching this spring than last spring.”

Redshirt freshman Kaegun Williams stepped forward in the search for a backup running back behind Juwan Washington. But sophomore Chase Jasmin, who suffered a knee injury the first week of camp, will certainly have something to say about the matter in the fall.

Senior Chad Woolsey also performed well carrying the ball, although the coaches envision Woolsey bulking up so be can compete with Lessard at fullback.

Long was not overly impressed with the receivers as a group during the workouts, although he said he was impressed with the efforts redshirt freshman BJ Busbee and Ethan Dedeaux.

SDSU has experience returning on the defensive line with Noble Hall, Chibu Onyeukwu and Anthony Luke, but still need to develop depth there. Long is counting on junior college transfers Joah Robinett and Jalil Lecky to be in the mix.

The Aztecs get a bit of a breather now before continuing offseason workouts.

“They’re going to get spring break off (March 26-30), then they’re going to lift and run four days a week until school’s out,” Long said. “Then they get about three weeks off and then they start it all over again.”

Here’s an unofficial depth chart coming out of spring practice:

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